About Karen FInney

Karen Finney: While there is much to celebrate in the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act recently passed by Congress and signed by President Obama, the rights of one group of Americans remain inadequately protected: the women and men in our armed forces who are victims of military sexual trauma.

Karen Finney: The record increases in minority voter registration and turnout have actually inspired a whole new generation of measures designed to pervert the law and blunt the impact of America’s growing minority population.

Karen Finney: Now that they have an opportunity to demonstrate concern for the middle class, Congressional Republicans seem willing to go to the mattresses to oppose Obama and defend economic policies designed to protect the extensive tax loopholes and breaks enjoyed by the top 1 percent and multinational corporations.

Karen Finney: Increased fear increases sales. It also increases dollars coming into the coffers of the NRA — perhaps LaPierre’s message was never intended to be “mainstream” or target the 80 percent of gun owners and 90 percent of Americans who support a background check.

Karen Finney: The GOP is attempting to force a pivot from the debt-ceiling conversation they are losing to a revised legislative sequence they think they can win: handling the budget first, then the sequester, rather than incur further damage with threats to shut down the government.

Karen Finney: Despite clear legislative, judicial and electoral defeats, Boehner outlined how “tactics of our repeal efforts will have to change,” with a new battle plan seeking to include “ObamaCare” into the negotiations on the “fiscal cliff.”

Karen Finney: Such a fight would galvanize support for Obama among progressives, creating goodwill he might need heading in to the “fiscal cliff” and budget discussions, which could require unpopular concessions from the president.

Karen Finney: Whether or not an extramarital affair should be grounds for stepping down from a high-level post, it’s a tragic and potentially dangerous reality of hyper-partisan Washington that events are so easily perverted into partisan witch hunts.

Karen Finney: Rejecting the false choice of either/or narratives, the idea that “we’re all in this together” and the focus on finding inclusive ways to embrace the bigger picture has been a consistent theme throughout President Obama’s life.

Wellness

Carole Bartolotto: The problem with concluding that GMOs are safe is that the argument for their safety rests solely on animal studies. These studies are offered as evidence that the debate over GMOs is over. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Environmentalism

Walker Foley: Elected officials seem to think there’s only one side of this property rights argument. The people who live in these communities have rights too, but the oil companies seem to have the jump on [the politicians’] side of the fence.